Sarah and Heike make their Teesside debuts

Performing Arts degrees are making their debut here at the University next month.

These new courses will be headed by women with a real passion for bringing the creative arts to the Tees Valley.

Dr Sarah O’Brien has returned to her home town of Middlesbrough to oversee the BA (Hons) Performance for Live and Recorded Media. While Heike Salzer moves from her international career in choreography and dance education in Germany and the Netherlands to take charge of the new BA (Hons) Dance in the Community.

Fell in love with dance Heike, 35, lives in Thornaby and is originally from Eppingen, a small village in Southern Germany. She fell in love with dance at the age of five. Heike said: ‘My mother Margit took me along to a dance class then, I was always jumping around and being energetic, I loved dance from day one. I feel really flat if I don’t dance for a couple of days.’

In her teens Heike first studied dance in Cologne and then moved to explore dance education at a Conservatoire, the Dance Academy Arnhem in the Netherlands, whose most famous graduate was the late Audrey Hepburn. One of the early highlights of Heike’s career was performing to audiences of thousands in the contemporary dance exhibition, Expo 2000, in Hanover. Heike said: ‘It was my first real job, with over 50 different nationalities taking part and three performances a day. There was a wonderful atmosphere.’

Heike has also taught choreography and dance at Iceland’s National Ballet School, where she developed a contemporary dance programme. She has also taught the same areas in the Netherlands. Heike said of the new Teesside Dance degree: ‘To be involved in the design of this new course and see the first cohort of students is a really exciting opportunity. Other places I’ve worked have a huge tradition of dance and this is entirely new, which is very rare in this business. Through this degree, students can learn to work as a team and apply their skills in areas such as education and health.’

Dr Sarah O’Brien, 30, is a former pupil of Nunthorpe School and St. Mary’s Sixth Form College in Middlesbrough, where she gained A levels in Theatre Studies, English and Psychology. She joined youth theatres in her early teens, at both Middlesbrough Theatre and the former Dovecot Arts Centre in Stockton.

Sarah said: ‘I loved performing on stage to start off with. But when I got older I turned to stage direction, I liked the opportunity to be more experimental.’

She went on to achieve a BA (Hons) in Performing Arts in Hertfordshire, followed by a Masters and PhD in Lancaster.

Develop performance skills to a much higher level Sarah added: ‘I’m delighted to return home and be near my family, and also as programme leader for these exciting new programmes. Students can develop their performance skills to a much higher level, in various media, such as film, theatre and radio presentation. The creative world is changing so quickly, where the arts can be accessed on mobile phones and lap tops and we can equip students with the required skills for this environment.’ The new degrees will be taught jointly both here on the University’s main campus and the state-of-the-art theatre and dance studios at Middlesbrough College’s Middlehaven development.

Ronan Patterson, Leader for Performing Arts at the University said: ‘The design of Middlesbrough College’s theatre reflects that of RADA in London (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) and our students will perform at Middlehaven. The new degree programmes here are offering something completely new to any other performing arts provision in the North-East.’

For more information on these courses please call 01642 384019, e-mail arts@tees.ac.uk.

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